Millers Win Final Friendly

Rotherham United had to wait until the last five minutes to get a win over Kettering Town at Nene Park last night.

The Millers, who were managed by Paul Raynor with Steve Evans watching Chesterfield, had a mixed side of, what I would probably call, fringe players, juniors, reserves, three trialists and a couple of first-teamers still trying to get their fitness levels up.

There were very few chances for either side in the first half with Revell having the best for the Millers but glanced his header wide of the post while Michael O`Connor saw a shot deflected for a corner. On thirty-eight minutes the referee (Paul Raynor! Though I presume not 'our` one!) judged one of the Millers trialists to have handled the ball, though it seemed a harsh decision, and gave Kettering a penalty which Sean Bennett-Johnson skied high into the sky with Andy Warrington in the Millers` goal watching not having to move. Warrington did come into his own just after the penalty by making a brilliant save from Danny Voight.

The home side started the stronger in the second half with David Mayo-Ugookor having a shot in the opening minutes which went just wide and minutes later had an effort that went over the crossbar. At the other end an O`Connor corner found Revell`s head but the ball went wide while, once again, Warrington did well to save a shot from Mayo-Ugookor while Warren Byerley had a couple of shots that went wide. Finally, on eight-five minutes the deadlock was broken when Nicky Walker, on for Lionel Ainsworth, found the head of Revell who put the ball in the net from close range. Robert Peake almost equalised for the Poppies but saw his shot go wide before Revell did a bit of fancy footwork and got the ball to Denton (on for Kieran Agard at half-time) who shot the ball low and hard past Laurie Walker in the home goal. A minute later Walker did save it from being three when he did well to get a fingertip to a Revell header and push the ball over the bar.

Roving Reporter Zipadeedoodah's view - Not a fluent performance last night, but bearing in mind we had the backbone of the team taken up by trialists it wasn't too bad. The goals were well worked and both really exploited the tired Kettering defence, but credit to the home team as they battled hard all night, and caused us a few problems.



Teams

Kettering Town

- First Half -

Gathercole, Burns, Radford, Palmer, Gerring, Bonnett-Johnson, Hervell, Beckles, Voigt, Pacome, Carney.

- Second Half -

Walker, Koroma, Peake, Long, King, Asllani, Blaze, Mayo-Ugookor, Lamplough, Langston, Byerley

Millers

Warrington, Rose, Lucas, Trialist, Johnson (Schofield), O`Connor, Trialist, Trialist (Beedham), Ainsworth (Walker), Revell, Agard (Denton

Subs not used - Thompson, Rowe, Travis, Woods.

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